Healing Hearts and Dark Divides
by Landlady of the Universe
Summary: Two lonely soldiers find hope in each other. But will circumstance tear them apart? Sequal to Broken Dreams and Shattered Souls.
1. Prologue: Trowa

Sorry this is so short guys, but at least it's out right?  A few notes: this is going to be way angsty, just to warn ya. ^_^ Gotta love it!  And for those who don't know, this is the sequel to Broken Dreams and Shattered Souls, so read that first, if you haven't, or you'll be really confused.

Oh yea, and go read my friend Emcron's fic Sacrifice of Angels, and don't forget to review!

Disclaimer: I'm a poor soon-to-be collage student who speaks only enough Japanese to get myself killed.  Do you really think I own it?

REVIEW!! Please. ^_____^

Healing Hearts and Dark Divides

Prologue: Trowa

If someone had told me three weeks ago that I was going to leave my perfect life at the circus in pursuit of a man that I didn't love, I would have told them that they were crazy.  And I would have been right.  Circus life is hardly perfect.  Actually it's terrible, but the life of a nomad is the only one that I've ever known.

Then I ended up in a Gundam and on Earth all alone for the first time that I can remember.  That surprises some, but it's true.  I was with the mercenaries and then the Barton foundation for as far back as I can recall.  I found myself on a whole new world full of life, real life no the imitation of the colonies.  But I could not appreciate its beauty, for I knew no such thing.

Then I met a blond angel, Quatre Rabarba Winner.  He showed me the meaning of beauty, of innocence.  Here he was, full of life in the midst of death, certain of his conviction even though it went against the beliefs he had been taught.  And I, I was nothing more than a child, out alone for the first time in my life, with no identity of my own to prove that I belonged on this beautiful Earth.  I don't know exactly when I fell in love, but I fell hard.  And it hurt.

*^*^*^*^*

Trowa opened his eyes.  Quatre was not the thing to be thinking of at the moment.  He had to find Wufei.  He didn't know what divine force was dragging him towards him, but he had learned a long time ago that it wasn't a good idea to resist.

He sighed and glanced out the window.  When he was sure that they weren't going to dock at the L3 colony any time soon, he allowed himself to lie back in his chair once more.

*^*^*^*^*

Then, when my heart was ripped open and dripping on the ground, I found company in my misery.

Chang Wufei.  We hardly spoke during the war, but I was never one to talk, I observed.  And from what I saw of Wufei during the war, he was too proud to try and kill himself, too arrogant to become depressed.  Until I saw him there, bleeding himself out on a hospital bed.  Don't ask me why I stayed by his side, not leaving a second before I had to, until he woke up.  Don't ask me why I came back day after day, and convinced the doctor to let him go when I saw that he was unhappy there.  Don't ask me why I brought him home with me.  I don't know.

All I know is that it was the right thing to do.

I have been one of the few to be present when the proud warrior mask has shattered, and I was privileged enough to see the person, a scared child just as I was, behind it.  I would hear the others speak cruelly of his insensitivity, but I knew they were wrong.  I never set them straight however, Wufei would not have appreciated it.

I suppose that we are kindred spirits of a sort.  We both hide behind masks that we have made ourselves through years of practice.  I made mine for survival; perhaps he did as well…

*^*^*^*^*

The unmistakable bump of the ship connecting with the dock woke Trowa from his reverie.  He opened his green eyes once more and surveyed the scene outside the window.  It was L3, unmistakable, he'd been here as a child.  None too happy memories those, but he wasn't one to hide from them.

All around him, people were rising and stretching muscles cramped from sitting for so long.  Trowa rose as well, but not to stretch; he didn't need to.  He grabbed his small bag, all that he'd brought, from an overhead compartment and strode out of the shuttle.  He was going to find Wufei if he had to tear the colony apart to do so.

*^*^*^*^*


	2. Prologue: Wufei

LL: Look!  I'm not dead!

B0b: (muttering) Pity.

LL: Wow.  It's been nearly four months or so since I've written anything. *cringes* Umm, what can I say, but I really have been extraordinarily busy.

B0b: Dazzling them with your pitiful spelling of big words isn't going to help you, I'm afraid.  Just read them your list of excuses and get it over with.

LL: *thwacks B0b with a huge blow-up hammer* Well, I got swamped with the end of school, final's and AP's and all that lovely stuff.  Then, I had about a week of summer before I started summer school since I am a masochist and decided to graduate early.  But… no more high school for me!!  And then, I moved, and that took up another two weeks just to get here and recover.  I just had to share that with all you lovely people out there.  I love you all, really I do.

J0rge: *snacking on an ice-cream sundae* Honestly, I don't know why you bother.  No body reads these a/n's anyway.  They're just going to go straight to the fic and then grumble because you only gave them one new chappy.

LL: But, I've already started to work on the next one, honest!!

B0b: Just shut up so that these poor people can read the fic.

Disclaimer: Hell, if I owned GW, I wouldn't bother going to college.

Prologue: Wufei

Wufei felt ill.

It wasn't the nearly healed scar on his chest that was giving him trouble.  Nor was it the one on his arm, that had, in effect, caused the other.

He glared at his computer, as if destroying the machine could make the information that it had just revealed disappear.

Upon coming back from trouncing a few local bullies who thought they could scare him into paying 'security' money, the Chinese boy found him computer blinking innocently at him, much as it was doing now.  For a bearer of bad news, it sure wasn't afraid of getting smashed.

Before leaving, he had set the computer up to scan through a message that his former partner in Preventers, Sally Po, had sent Lady Une a few days ago.  To be precise, the message was a SOS.  Her mission had been simple.  Being a lot more diplomatic than most Preventers, Wufei included, Sally had been sent to calm down a few colonists who were worried that the local Preventers branch would become militaristic and attempt to take over.  After a three-day silence, unusual for Sally, this SOS came through, so garbled and full of static that the only thing that could be made out was that she was knee-deep in shit, to put it mildly.  The computer program that he had set up was intended to hack through the static to see if anything else had gotten through.  The results told him three things.

One: that the static was not the result of a bad connection.  It was manufactured, layers and layers of it to hide the part of the mission report that could do some good to anyone coming after Sally.

Two: Sally had been betrayed by someone within the Preventers organization and as a result had been captured by a group of belligerent mercenaries that inhabited this colony.

Thirdly, it told Wufei her exact location.

The former pilot sat back, digesting what he had found.  Sally, who had been his friend and mentor from the time he had first met her, had been captured.  It wasn't particularly inconceivable, just not something that he had ever thought of.  After all, he had always figured that he would be there to guard her back.

That was before he had run away from the Preventers.

Sally.  She had always been there for him.  No matter how much he yelled, or tired to push her away.  She would not leave him to face his failures alone, even from the beginning.  She brought him lunch on those extra busy days when he forgot to eat.  Dragged him to movies so that he would not stay cooped up in his apartment on his days off.  At first he resented the way that she treated him; he felt that she thought of him as a child who couldn't take care of himself.  Then, he realized that she only wanted to be his friend.  After that, he stopped grumbling about going with her to a movie (unless it was a romance), and a time or two, even brought **her** lunch for a change.

Sally, the woman who would have sacrificed herself to 'heal his heart', had been captured, maybe even dead for all he knew.

Wufei only had one small word for the shit-faced god that enjoyed toying with his life: why?

*^*^*^*^*

Why turned out to be a very good question, as Wufei soon found out.  Now that he had Sally's full report, the former pilot was reluctant to go to Preventer headquarters.  So instead, he was forced to stay in his cramped up hotel room to see if he could hack into the colonies records.

From what he found, the particular group of mercenaries that were holding Sally hostage had occupied this colony since well before the war.  Other than a few charges of drunk-and-disorderly, the local police had no problems with the group.  The known members held no steady jobs, but would do almost anything for the right amount of money.  No one had ever complained about any harassment by members of the group, but Wufei had to wonder if this was because they were too afraid to do so.

All of this aside, Nataku's pilot could find no real reason for them to attack Sally.  Or even fake a group of disgruntled colonists in order to lure her here, as Wufei was beginning to suspect.  So he was brought back to his original question: why?

A sharp ring cut into his thoughts.

Fishing around for his cell, Wufei managed to answer by the third ring.  It was Lady Une.

"You haven't reported in yet," she said by way of a greeting.

He told her what he'd found.

A pause.  Then, a quiet but firm, "Find her Wufei.  No matter what it takes, find her."

"That's exactly what I intend to do."

See this little button?  Click the little button.  Review.  Reviews good for Landlady.  Reviews make Landlady write more faster.

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	3. Screams for a Deaf Man's Ears

Here it is. Hope you like it and please review!!!

Disclaimer: Being the Landlady of the Universe, I own everything.  Unfortunatly, the GW people are very good about paying their rent, so I can't confiscate their work. *grumbles*

Chapter 1: Screams for a Deaf Man's Ears

Sally's head hurt.

Oh sure, that wasn't the only thing that hurt.  Her legs were cramped up from being folded under her on a concrete floor for so long.  And her arms weren't too happy about being handcuffed behind her, and unpleasant experience in the best of situations.  Not to mention the various cuts, scrapes, and bruises she'd acquired during her capture.  The oozing bullet wound in her shoulder was pretty painful too.

But her pounding head took precedence over all of these injuries.  It felt like a group of teenagers with the aspirations to be heavy metal stars were destroying expensive music equipment inside her skull.  And a couple of them were yelling to boot.

No wait, that was real.

Over the few days that she'd been captured, Sally had been questioned by increasingly high-ranking mercenaries.  She could only assume that the people arguing – rather loudly – outside were her next victims, er, questioners.  It seemed that the mercenary camp had never met a person who resisted their questioning as well as she did, and Sally was sure that there were bets among the lower ranking mercs on who would break her first.  She would have found it funny if not for the situation she was in.  As it was, she was beginning to wish that they would just kill her and get it over with.

The door opened, and Sally braced herself.  The only tiny amount of satisfaction in this whole ordeal was in thwarting her captors as they tried to get her to tell them what they wanted to know.  Sally would rather rot alive then tell them, and as a result, was actually having a bit of fun heading them off.  Since she was in no shape to resist torture, she made it a point to anger her current questioner so much that getting information out of her was the last thing on his mind.  In short, she was getting a lot of use out of the insults that Wufei used to use on **her**.

Sally braced herself, her mind racing towards her first set of insults.  With any luck, she would have an interesting story to tell Wufei when she saw him again.

Unfortunately for Sally, fate wasn't going to make it easy.

The newest arrival was a young woman.  She turned for a moment to snap something profane at the guard standing outside.  With a few short steps, she entered the room fully, and sat down at a small table placed there for that purpose.  Pouring herself a glass of water, she seemed wholly uninterested in her captive.  Sally took the opportunity to size the girl up.

She was totally unlike all of the others that had come before her.  Her light brown hair was pulled back into a no-nonsense ponytail.  A pair of silver studs in her ears seemed to be her only decoration, although even that seemed a little out of place on her.  She was not ugly, but most certainly not a beauty.  Her pale green tank top and army green shorts revealed nothing, except perhaps that she was not one to be trifled with.  Although the pistol strapped to her left thigh conveyed **that** message very well.

After drinking, she looked up and pinned Sally down with a green-eyed glare.  Sally gulped.

"I want the code to get into the Preventer mainframe."

Sally blinked a few times, making sure she'd heard correctly.  When she didn't answer, the girl rose from her spot and walked around to squat in front of the captive woman.

"I have it on good authority, Ms. Po," she said almost conversationally, "that you are rather chummy with Lady Une.  Therefore, I am sure that you know the code.  And I **want** the code to the Preventer mainframe."

Sally closed her mouth with a snap for a moment before opening it again, "No."  The girl cocked her head at Sally, as if to say 'Really?'  The Chinese woman took a deep breath and went on, "I'll not give you anything, and if you don't like it you can kiss my ass."

The girl stood, and chuckled as she toyed with her gun.  "That's a very dangerous answer, you realize that, don't you?"

"Perhaps.  But I'm sure that I got a message through to my superior.  And any minute now, a whole squad of Preventers are going to bust through that door and send you on a one way trip downstairs."  She knew it wasn't a good thing to say the second that the words came from her mouth.

The girl looked back at her, "Very well.  Perhaps one of your friends will be more cooperative."

The last thing Sally saw were those cold green eyes.

*^*^*^*^*

Trowa scowled as he stepped off of the shuttle.  He hated L3.  It wasn't that this cluster of colonies was shabby or unkempt (although this particular one was smaller than most colonies and therefore had a tendency to be a little on the rough side).  Rather, he had spent too much time and experienced too many unpleasant memories under the band of mercenaries that raised him in these colonies to like them very much.  Even if this wasn't the exact home colony of his former employers, it was too similar for him to feel right at home.

So he headed for the Preventers branch in hopes of finding some comfort in good old-fashioned work.

*^*^*^*^*

Knowing that time was not on his partner's side, Wufei didn't intend to waste a second.  As soon as Lady Une hung up, he rose, gathering the bare essentials, and headed out the door.

He would find Sally, and get her out of whatever situation she had got herself into, even if he died doing it.  He owed her that much.

*^*^*^*^*

The Preventers office was unusually empty.  Or rather, it was void of the constant motion that Trowa had seen in other offices.  In fact, there was no one in the front room of a building except a bored receptionist who didn't even look up from her solitaire game as she asked, "How may I help you sir?"

Before Trowa could state his business, a door to the left opened with a slam, and out stepped none other than the Perfect Soldier himself.  His look told Trowa that he was as surprised to see Trowa, as Trowa was to see **him**.

But the look didn't last.  Heero still had too much of his training in him.  "Barton," he said by way of greeting, crossing his arms as to ask what he was doing there.

"Yuy," Trowa replied much in the same manner.  He wasn't too sure how to act toward Quatre's betrothed.  The wound that the little Arabian's announcement had rent was still too fresh.  But Trowa didn't let any of this show.  His shields had been created for survival in a harsh world, and weren't likely to break down any time soon.

Heero motioned to the door that he had come violently through, and entered, Trowa following without question.  They ended up in a small office that Heero had temporarily acquisitioned.

Without preamble, not that Heero was very subtle, the Perfect Soldier turned toward the other and said, "I thought you were Chang."

"I was hoping to find him here myself," Trowa admitted.  At Heero's raised eyebrow he added reluctantly, "He's injured."  Heero looked even more skeptical if that was possible, but Trowa refused to elaborate.  Finally, Heero shrugged.

"I'll call Une," he said matter-of-factly, reaching for the phone.

"You do that.  I'll find Wufei; I know he's here."  Without giving Heero a chance to reply, Trowa spun on his heel and walked out the door.

*^*^*^*^*

The party in question at the Preventers office was, at that very moment, deciding that he wasn't overly fond of colony maps.  Who would have guessed that such a small colony would be so hard to navigate?  Instead of reaching his destination, Wufei had managed to end up at the pitiful Preventers headquarters…

… at the exact same instant that a certain tall, former Gundam pilot exited the building.

Wufei thought fleetingly of running or hiding, but for one thing his pride wouldn't allow it.  And for another, it was kind of nice to see that Trowa had followed him all the way into space, although that thought wasn't allowed to register in the conscious part of his brain.

Trowa turned then, and their eyes met.

They both had only one thing to say: "What are you doing here?"

In case anyone was wondering where the hell Heero came from, Une sent him to help out Sally when she first got the SOS.  Then, she called Trowa because Heero was going to need help.

Now that I've finally got a (semi) working kitchen, anyone want fresh baked cookies for a little bitty review?  Please? *bats eyelashes all cute like*


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